Advice For My 2009 Mac Pro

[ruskinthecat]

Hi All

I currently have an Early 2009 2.66ghz Mac Pro, 16GB RAM, SSD, 10TB Storage, GTX285.
My main usage is heavy photoshop, handbrake, gaming (bootcamp).

I was hoping, like many of us, for a new Mac Pro to be announced this year, but there hasn't been any announcement and I am now considering what my current options are.

My thoughts are to upgrade the firmware to 5.1, upgrade the CPU to the W3680 (if I can find one available in the UK), put in 24GB 1333mhz RAM and the GTX680.

Would i see a large increase in performance for photoshop, handbrake & gaming (bootcamp)? I think the above would cost approx £950, would it be worth it?

Or should I continue to twiddle my thumbs and wait for the mythical 2013 Mac Pro?

Any help very much appreciated.

 

[DPUser]

I did the hex upgrade and love it... I actually bought my 2009 Mac used with the intent of "creating" my own 2010.

Provantage has the CPUs for $590 USD... would they ship to you?

 

[ruskinthecat]

I did the hex upgrade and love it... I actually bought my 2009 Mac used with the intent of "creating" my own 2010.

Provantage has the CPUs for $590 USD... would they ship to you?

Thanks DPUser, I will take a look.
My main worry is does spending approx £950 justify a machine that will essentially be a 2010 spec with a fancy GPU?
Is the performance gain that good?
Thoughts?

 

[mokeiko]

Mostly everyone who has done this upgrade will tell you it's worth it, but only you can determine that for yourself. If I was in your situation, I would definately do the upgrade and maybe get a new MacPro a year later IF Apple comes out with one.

mokeiko

 

[xcodeSyn]

Is the performance gain that good?

According to the Geekbench score, the CPU upgrade alone would provide 66% increase from 8261 to 13739. With your other planned upgrades, you should at least see 30%-50% overall performance improvement. Whether this is satisfactory to you, as others already pointed out, depends on your own personal evaluation.

 

[ruskinthecat]

According to the Geekbench score, the CPU upgrade alone would provide 66% increase from 8261 to 13739. With your other planned upgrades, you should at least see 30%-50% overall performance improvement. Whether this is satisfactory to you, as others already pointed out, depends on your own personal evaluation.

Many thanks for the feedback - I think I'll go for it.

 

[chiefroastbeef]

I upgraded my 2009 MP to 3.33 hex core, with the 670 video card, and ssd for boot drive.

It is definitely worth the money, and I can get two to three more years out of it. The only negative thing I can see is not having thunderbolt in the near future if I keep the 2009...

 

[comatory]

I'm thinking I'll do a hex upgrade once I feel that quad is not enough for me (I have 2.93 Ghz version). My only wish is that it'd be great if the CPUs dropped down in price to 300 USD or so, probably not gonna happen.

Do you think there is a possibility that they might become more expensive in the future?

 

[chiefroastbeef]

I'm thinking I'll do a hex upgrade once I feel that quad is not enough for me (I have 2.93 Ghz version). My only wish is that it'd be great if the CPUs dropped down in price to 300 USD or so, probably not gonna happen.

Do you think there is a possibility that they might become more expensive in the future?

You can buy the hex, and sell the 2.93 to make the swap cheaper.